Writing is one of those things that improves only through practice. Direct instruction is helpful but only as it is applied to yet another writing assignment. Here are some ways to sneak more writing into your child’s routine without his even realizing it’s school.
1. Emailing
Set up an email account and let your child correspond with friends and relatives. An email account is also good for requesting catalogs or other printed freebies like these posters from the EPA.
ZooBuh! or Kid’s Email are two companies that provide protected email service to children and their parents.
2. Blogging
Blogging is a fantastic way to give your child a real audience for his writing. Visit Blogging2Learn for direction in helping your child set up a blog.
I’m especially impressed by Eight Thumbs Up, a blog of book, game, and movie reviews written by four siblings.
3. Penpals
This classic pastime is still alive! Although some people prefer e-pals, my daughter always liked the wait time between letters and sending physical objects through the postal system. Collecting stamps was an added perk.
4. Postcard Collecting
For younger children, mom will need to do most of the planning for this writing activity while the child merely writes a sentence or two on the postcard. Tweens and teens can arrange their own trades and compose their own messages. I recommend Postcard Kids for this kind of hobby.
5. Flat Traveler Trading
More of a commitment than postcard trading, flat travelers can be a fantastic way to take a “field trip in an envelope.” Keeping a journal for the flat involves quite a bit of writing.
6. Keeping a Diary or Journal
Compiling thoughts and dreams in your own blank book is not only writing practice; it can also promote both healing and creativity.
7. Writing Thank You Notes or Notes of Encouragement
Besides writing thank yous for their own birthday or holiday presents, your child could serve as the family’s correspondence secretary and write notes on behalf of the entire family. Recently someone gifted us with four tickets to an expensive performance. I let Sprite compose and write the thank you note for us. The responsibility I gave her caused her to take extra care in the task.
If there haven’t been any gifts recently, ask your church secretary for a list of shut-ins or American soldiers that would enjoy an encouraging note.
Although some of these forms of writing may not directly relate to writing that perfect five paragraph essay, any chance to practice writing in an enjoyable, practical context should be taken. Writing, like math, is a tool we need for real, everyday living. These types of writing tasks demonstrate that truth.
What do you do to sneak in more writing?
We do all those, except for the Flat Travelers. They are all great ways to sneak in writing! 🙂
We’ve done 4. We do 6 and 7 regularly! My boys are getting old enough to do the others!
Glad you shared these!
zilladog is another good email site for kids. There is a one time $9.95 fee per account. My boys have accounts through this site, and there are lots of good filters in place.
Shopping lists!!! My kids love to write out the weekly list… and often it is just a quick: milk and bread and toothpaste… but depending on who is writing and who needs some extra practice our shopping list can have the most amazing things on it. I expect my husband to show discernment when faced with a weird and wonderful list!!!
I recently encouraged my 14 year old to start a blog. Due to his love of gaming this is the topic he chose to blog on. I mentioned to him the 8 Tumbs Up which I added to my favorites. You might also want to take a look at this blog for book reviews by kids geared towards tweens, there is also one for teens.
http://readingtween.blogspot.com/
we do thank you cards and have a pen pal! I also make him write the grocery list (when I’m not rushing for time)!!
love the new header.
An erasable magic ‘whiteboard’ for in the car for writing games during long travel trips.
Found your blog through Heart of the Matter. Great stuff-I’ll be subscribing and passing it on to my wife. I’m a writing teacher-former public high school teacher, but still teaching online and through local coops.
Couldn’t agree more that writing proficiency develops only with practice. These are all great ideas. I wish I could think of another to add!
My daughter copies song lyrics and my son writes songs. My son has also made it his personal challenge…to use correct grammar, punctuation and full sentences while texting,instant messaging and using FB.
My daughter is starting a blog, posting a picture a day that she takes, and then writing about it.
happy day!
I appreciate this post very much. It was a great reminder last week when my children needed to get some thank you notes written! My children both have blogs, but I FORGET to set aside time to let them write and add things to their space. My struggle is I have a lot of ideas, but I am weak on the follow through.
After finishing a kid’s typing course, I let my son play a few interactive fiction games (text adventures) I knew were suitable. To play, he had to type short imperative sentences such as “take key.” Once he was hooked I knew he would want to create his own. Now he begs to be allowed to work on his text adventure, which involves typing complete descriptive sentences, and getting all the punctuation and spacing correct for the computer to understand.
This isn’t a project for everyone, but if you are interested, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction gives a lot of information. “Lost Pig” and “Snack Time” are two kid-friendly games (many games are not appropriate for children). Writing your own adventure is on par with writing a computer program, but the Inform compiler by Graham Nelson has a natural language interface that makes it easier to get started creating.
Just looking for some ideas about kids and blogging and found your site – I love these ideas and just tweeted this post. (@imaginationsoup) I’ll be back!
Our girls have blogged, too! My teenager is really getting into it. She posts devotional type stuff for other teens at Throwing Pebbles. And it really does work! It hones their writing skills (and helps them with typing, too!). And she’s learned HTML.
great ideas!!
Going to pin this to my “Writing Fun” Pinterest board and tweet it. I completely agree that giving kids “real” writing is a great way for them to practice. Writing articles for your local paper is another idea. All mine at some point did that as a way to promote their 4-H activities but it had the added benefit of getting them to do a bit of extra writing.
And writing contests – Patriot’s Pen (for middle school) is a great one as there are winners all the way from the local level up to National level. My daughter won a lot of money with that and she isn’t a great writer. After her first year of winning at local level she worked harder each year.
And all mine blogged – and I let them use my Amazon affiliate account so they earned money at the same time.
Um, I’m so very glad to see this post! I am always trying to find ways to inspire my strugging writer to write. These are excellent.
I encourage our kids to write reviews on gaming products they buy on the internet, books purchased through Amazon and even toys. It is a GREAT tool to teach them how to read reviews and determine if a product is good prior to purchase and TO also leave their own.
They have to write a report about days at museums, aquariums or even business conferences.
For some of the different platforms they discover, if they want to record on them for Youtube, they have to write an email to the creator of the platform and ask permission. This not only teaches them email etiquette, yet also business communication.
LOVE these ideas! My parents live in the US Virgin Islands, so I’ve had my kids write to them – postcards, letters, emails, texts – since they were little and I always feel super sneaky for getting in that writing practice without them knowing it! 😉